Julius von Bismark has created a device, dubbed ‘the Image Fulgurator’, with which he, and you, can project an image onto any scene being photographed by other people, when they are using flash. You can add text and/or images onto the scene which will be recorded by their cameras. This is so potentially punk! The potential uses are enormous, and varied depending on the intent of the person with the projection device. You can befuddle tourists, add political statements into press photographers’ images, embarrass family and friends, confuse complete strangers, mock public officials, and, oh yeah, create art images.

The device is basically a slide projector built into a 35mm film camera which is triggered by other camera flashes nearby. When a camera flash is sensed, the device fires its own flash, projecting the image onto the scene during the moment that the other camera is taking the picture. It’s likely too fast for the eye to see, thus adding to the confounding effect. When the other person looks at their photo, the projected image will appear as if it were always there in the scene. But, of course, they didn’t see it at the time of the photo, and it’s not there now, when they look at the scene again in confusion.

It’s a rather ingenious usage and mashup, of technology that has been around for a long time, but in new and exciting way.

Kudos to Julius von Bismark for this. I predict that the effects and results will start appearing in images worldwide. This device has been patent pending since 2007, but was recently posted on Makezine.com, which is where I first saw it.